SMOOTH CURVES

Although Walt Disney’s masterpieces are not forgotten, legacy cartoon techniques are a thing of the past. As long ago as 1995, the movie “Toy Story” proved that computers are more than up to the task of animating pictures. We’ll help you get started with building your own animations.

Spational models start life as wire frames. After you add textures and lighting, they can be converted to artificial 3D scenes. This process is known as rendering. Most industrial designs, from cars to coffee machines, are created using this method. Blender is an open source program that handles all the steps from the construction of a model, through texturing and lighting, to rendering the 3D scene. Blender also has powerful animation features. This article describes how to build a basic 3D model using a cartoon character as a reference. Next month, I’ll describe how to teach this static model to walk.

Free software enjoys an excellent reputation in the field of 3D graphics. In addition to Blender, other projects stand out: MakeHuman creates realistic 3D humans, and Art of Illusion – with its intuitive interface – lets users enter the world of animated movies.

Several free game engines are available for Linux users, but programming with them is often less than intuitive. Panda3D is an easy-to-use engine that is accessible enough for newcomers but still powerful enough for the pros at Disney Studios.

Shaping 3D objects with two-dimensional input devices is not easy. In this issue, we investigate how the K-3D project tackles designing a new user interface. Also, Towns triumphs, trouble at Debian, and good news.